As the world awaits the verdict in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, I’ve also been trying to sell two chairs on Facebook Marketplace. With the imminent arrival of a sleeper sofa to our little casita, I need to clear out the living/room/storage area. It is currently host to my sister Kay’s power recliner (she now has her NY furniture), and an old leather, French bergere chair and ottoman that worked well in Rumson in the 80s and found a temporary home at the Bride’s house until she redecorated. TWO chairs – I thought it would be easy.
This is my first try at selling something on Marketplace. One person needs to get a truck, but wait, her son can’t help until tomorrow. And another wants to know if I deliver, and how much I charge??? I listed one chair as sold, and then had to change it back and lower the price. To make matters worse, I thought I was being hacked, because apparently AI responds to people in Messenger, or maybe it was prompting me? I’m not sure. But I am sure about NOT using AI. I avoid it at all costs, and if you’re paying attention you will too. Have you not heard about the AI modules who escaped their playground?
We all know AI chat bots have been creating chaos for teachers lately. I wonder how children will learn to write in the future, and what will happen to artistic expression. Then I think am I just being Aunt Bert asking me, “Where does your blog go?”
Enter the The Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey. He is attending the G20 Summit in of all places Asheville, NC, and he issued a warning about the global economic risks of this technology. Bailey said “frontier” AI models were “showing increasingly sophisticated autonomy and problem-solving abilities, as well as threat capabilities… Recent developments have also highlighted to me that many jurisdictions do not have the protocols in place to manage the development, release, and deployment of advanced frontier AI models, heightening risks for the financial sector and beyond.” https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/aug/31/advanced-frontier-ai-financial-stability-andrew-bailey-g20
And if that doesn’t get your attention, AI modules can also reproduce replicate themselves! Anthropic reports its modules can autonomously design and develop its own successor. This is called recursive self-improvement. I call it frightening. On the one hand, Meta must put some guardrails on its systems for teenagers, and on the other hand data centers are exploding in our communities the way cell phone towers once cropped up on the highest hills. I remember home owners complaining at Borough Council Meetings, and the Rumson Mayor throwing his hands up in the air about eminent domain.
While today the Commander in Chief chops down cherry trees for the DC golf course and appoints INFLUENCERS to the White House Press pool. And the Pentagon fires editors and reporters at the Stars and Stripes for speaking out about the need for editorial independence.
“It’s enough to make you crazy if you let it.”
The world is moving too fast, and for Mr T it is a strategy. Tear it down, and hey SCOTUS will let him continue to build the ballroom. But we all paused this week at the passing of an icon. Dolly Parton was beloved on both sides of the aisle, all the while quietly giving back to her community and progressive causes. This was her opening line to a reporter, “Ask me anything you want to ask me, and I’ll tell you what I want you to hear.” Well I for one would like to hear what a savvy business woman like Dolly thinks about AI. She said NO to Elvis, kept her song publishing rights and built a $650 million dollar empire.
When we moved here, I was so impressed with her Imagination Library, and remember how the Grands would love getting her books in the mail.
Dolly’s makeup artist was a drag queen, a friend of my hair stylist. She spread love and sparkled everywhere. Nashville is sorely missing her. In the 1980 movie “9 to 5,” she let women know they could be exactly themselves, fight back against sexual harassment, and look good doing it. Maybe they didn’t get equal pay in the movie, it took President Obama signing the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009 to achieve that, but Dolly, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin gave our second wave feminist movement a boost.
We will always love you Dolly. If you’re so inclined, you may donate to her library here: https://imaginationlibrary.com/
Yesterday at the JCC
MountainMornings 